Aurora Congressman Mike Coffman paid Republican Ben Carson $15,000 to speak at a fundraiser, according to a Wall Street Journal story reporting that the GOP presidential candidate and his wife earned between $8.9 million and $27 million in a recent 16-month period.

Now that Coffman has announced he won’t run for the U.S. Senate but will again seek re-election in the 6th District, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee immediately went to work to highlight Thursday’s WSJ piece. The group works to elect Democrats to Congress and is itching to unseat Coffman. Democrats thought that they had redrawn the seat after the 2010 census to make it competitive enough to kick out the Republican but Coffman has moderated his views on immigration reform and other issues.

The DCCC says the speech is another reason to be skeptical of the shift.

“After years of running to the right, embracing the birther movement and paying the extremely controversial Ben Carson thousands of dollars, Mike Coffman has been attempting a fake moderate rebrand to keep his seat. Voters will see right through that,” said Tyler Law, press secretary for the Mountain West Region of the DCCC.

Responded Coffman spokesman Tyler Sandberg: “They said that all last cycle and their No. 1 recruit in the country got steamrolled by 9 points.”

The Blue Bear, a popular public arts project, peaks into the Colorado Convention Center. (Denver Arts & Venues)

“The Colorado Convention Center is partially funded by the City and County of Denver, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” Equality Colorado wrote. “We demand that the Colorado Convention Center refuse to host the Western Conservative Summit unless they allow the Log Cabin Republicans to exhibit at the Summit.”

Brian Kitts, the director of marketing and communications for Arts & Venues for Denver, was asked about the letter-writing campaign.

“There are a number of ‘if-then’ questions here but the easiest answer is that once a client rents a venue like the convention center — the sale of booth space, advertising, etc. has to comply with client guidelines. So, yes, the summit had the right not to allow booth space,” Kitts said.

State Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, right, joins other lawmakers as Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2013 signs into law a bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

State Sen. Lucia Guzman won’t participate on a legislative panel that has ties to the Western Conservative Summit because the influential organization refused to allow a gay group, the Log Cabin Republicans, to set up an exhibit.

“I cannot in good conscience attend the panel … so long as the voice of gay and lesbian conservatives is stifled,” she said Thursday in a letter to John Andrews, the summit chairman and panel organizer.

Guzman, a Denver Democrat who is gay, said she had agreed to participate on a panel at the Centennial Institute May 11 to discuss the 2015 legislative session, which ends May 6. The think tank is part of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, which sponsors the summit. Andrews and CCU were blistered nationally last week for telling members of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans the group could not purchase exhibit space at the summit June 26-28 in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center.

“In 40 years of booking speakers, I’ve learned there are lots of fish in the sea,” Andrews said in response to Guzman’s letter. “It’s too bad Sen. Guzman can’t make it to our May 11 panel. We welcomed her cordially the last time she spoke at CCU, and we’ll hope to do so again one of these days.”

Douglas County Republican Kendal Unruh has attended every Western Conservative Summit since its inception, but this year she inadvertently booked the family vacation at the same time as the event.

Douglas County Republican Kendal Unruh and her son Dominic at he 2014 Western Conservative Summit in Denver. (Unruh photo)

“I was disappointed once I realized the conflict,” she said today. “However, I was just resolved to being disappointed.”

That was before a national uproar last week between the summit, which is part of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, and a gay GOP group, the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans. The group was upset when summit chairman John Andrews said members couldn’t set up a table at the event because Log Cabin Republicans don’t share CCU’s views supporting traditional marriage. The summit returned the group’s $250 fee.

Unruh has since changed the dates of their Canadian vacation so the family can attend the summit in Denver June 26-28. The event regularly attracts some of the country’s best known conservatives, including a slew of presidential hopefuls, since its began in 2010.

“I knew it was my obligation to show support of WCS, so I paid the extra change fees on the airline, and lost out on a pre-paid hotel and car reservation. That is how deeply held my convictions are that we, as Christians, stand up in the face of religious intolerance,” Unruh said. “Also, my children are well aware of the sacrifices that were made to support fellow Christians when their worldview was under attack, so that life lesson is invaluable, and it was worth the cost.”

The increasingly influential Western Conservative Summit has disinvited a gay Republican group to attend its event this summer — a message that sends exactly the wrong message, members of the Log Cabin Republicans say.

The Colorado Log Cabin Republicans had paid a $250 fee to be able to set up a table at the event, but then received a message from John Andrews, head of the Centennial Institute, which is affiliated with Colorado Christian University and sponsors the summit.

“You and your members are very welcome to get tickets and attend, but we can’t officially have the organization as a partner, exhibitor, or advertiser,” Andrews said.

As a private organization, the summit has a right to decide the invite list, Log Cabin Republicans concede. But still.

“It is a pretty common issue we face. They’ll take our money, but want us in the closet,” said Michael Carr of Denver, a former state Senate candidate and secretary of the state chapter of Log Cabin Republicans.

“This is the most important time for us to be reaching out to all types of groups and people, all types of Republicans, all types of conservatives. Young people especially want to see a robust political debate and this dis-invitation is the exact opposite of that. Being perceived as anti-gay turns young people off even more than it does the general public.”

The Log Cabin Republicans are back with another attack on Rep. Jared Polis, this time using his background in internet floral delivery to ding the Boulder Democrat over his support for ballot measures that critics say would cripple Colorado’s oil-and-gas industry.

The Log Cabin Republicans are again attacking Congressman Jared Polis in a newspaper ad.

The national conservative group took out a full-page ad in Monday’s Denver Post that featured a bouquet of roses with a card that read, “Dear Colorado: Sorry about the lost jobs, the good news is your energy costs will be higher. Best, Jared.”

Log Cabin Republicans claim Polis is using his vast wealth to block responsible energy development. The group booked the ad before news Friday a compromise bill is in the works that Polis reportedly is on board with, although there is some opposition from the industry. If a compromise can be reached, a special session is expected to be called.

“This situation is still very fluid,” Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said Sunday.

“I’m reluctant to comment on any proposed agreement until there’s word that something has actually been agreed to, but the fact that Polis seems willing to play ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ leads me to believe he’s been hearing a lot about this from his constituents and members of his own party who know how disastrous it would be to continue the tack he’s been pursuing.”

“Certainly references to pop culture tend to get the attention of a broader part of the electorate,” Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said today.

“We did want to call attention to the extreme wealth that Congressman Polis is investing into these ballot initiatives. We saw no better way to do that than to invoke imagery of Robin Leach and the classic ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or in this case ‘Rich and Out of Touch.'”

Rep. Jared Polis (left) and George Leing (Right) are face off for Colorado’s second congressional district seat in November (Leing photo provided by Leing campaign)

In a surprising move, the National Republican Congressional Committee – NRCC – announced that Niwot lawyer George Leing is “On the Radar” in the NRCC’s Young Guns program, even though he is running in a district that is decidedly Democratic.

The Young Guns is a recruitment program that identifies GOP candidates nationwide who the NRCC says personify the tenets of the House Republican Conference and have the potential to run a successful campaign. That last bit is interesting considering Leing is running in Colorado’s second congressional district which hasn’t produced a victorious Republican candidate in more than two decades.

Congressman Jared Polis — labeled “King Polis” — was blasted in a full-page ad today in The Denver Post for his involvement with energy ballot measures that critics say would cost Colorado tax revenue and jobs.

The ad, from Log Cabin Republicans, features a photograph of the Boulder Democrat that has been altered to show him wearing a crown and a robe. It comes one day after Log Cabin Republicans unveiled a radio ad targeting Polis on the same issue and its director, Gregory T. Angelo, calling the congressman a “limousine liberal.”

Asked about the radio-ad buy, Polis couldn’t resist his own jab: “Oh, did all three of them chip in?”

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation’s largest Republican organization representing the interests of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and their allies. The group has more than 30,000 registered members. It’s a “myth,” Angelo told The Denver Post Tuesday, that Log Cabin Republicans is a “small and insignificant organization.”

Denver Republican Alexander Hornaday, who testified Wednesday in support of civil unions, chided his party for killing the bill last year and predicted tough times ahead if the GOP doesn’t adapt.

“If the lawmakers from our party remain committed to outmoded and unprincipled positions regarding families headed by same-sex couples, we risk looking at our 2012 electoral embarrassment as the good old days, ” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats in November regained control of the House, kept control of the Senate and cheered as all nine electoral college votes went to President Barack Obama.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.